Asia Jarvis
PORTSMOUTH, Va. – A Portsmouth woman who triggered an AMBER Alert last Friday has turned herself in to police.
The AMBER Alert was issued after Asia D. Jarvis, 24, allegedly took her two children, 5-year-old Dominique Jarvis, and 18-month-old Messiah Jarvis. Police say Jarvis threatened to kill her children if their father, Dalano McKinney, did not give her money.
Court records say McKinney, called police to report a domestic assault Friday afternoon, and asked police to help him find his two boys. He eventually provided officers with paperwork that showed he had full custody of the two children along with concerning text messages written by Jarvis.
However, News 3 spoke to Jarvis’s little brother, Deshawn, and he says those claims are not true.
“It was terrible, because they are making an image [out of her] that she is not,” Deshawn told News 3’s Merris Badcock. He added his sister would never hurt her children, and says in total, she has four kids. “I leave my three children with her all the time, above anyone.”
Jarvis returned the children five hours after the AMBER alert was issued, around midnight on Saturday, but she remained on the run.
Her brother says he talked to Jarvis about turning herself in.
“We told her to go there, but she already had her mind set that she was going to go turn herself in,” said Deshawn.
Portsmouth Police confirmed Jarvis reached out to detectives about meeting up with police.
“She spoke to the detective, and told him she was going to turn herself in,” said Sgt. John Doyle, a spokesman for the department. “She came in and turned herself in to him, he had a conversation and she was put in jail on the charges that she got.”
Jarvis was charged with two counts of felony Abduction and one count of Domestic Assault and Battery, but family members say this was a domestic argument that got blown up out of proportion.
“It was all over a phone. That’s what it was all over,” said Deshawn. “He picked a whole argument over a phone. He took her phone and ran off with it.”
Family members also say despite sole custody of the children, McKinney has been living with Jarvis for the past few months.
Deshawn Jarvis says his sister has four children in total, one with special needs.
The Portsmouth Juvenile and Domestic Relations clerk told News 3 Jarvis will not have a bond hearing because of outstanding charges in Chesapeake. News 3 investigators found a number of different charges spread throughout the court systems in Chesapeake, including domestic assault, grand larceny, petite larceny and a warrant in debt suit filed by Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Jarvis is expected back in Portsmouth Juvenile & Domestic Relations court in May for an adjudicatory hearing.
